The page-turners

Achy Obejas

Writer

With acclaimed novels, a Pulitzer and two Lambda Literary Awards, Cuban-born Obejas is one of the leading voices in the Latina, gay and literary communities. In ’87, she covered the scramble to elect a new mayor after the death of Harold Washington. Cops were not letting anyone in or out of City Hall, and things got desperate. “We dropped some sort of rope or line out of the window and somebody had gotten us fried chicken. And we hauled it up. We had this insane feast of fried chicken at five in the morning while the mayor was being elected.”—Jonathan Messinger

Obejas’s next novel will be published by Akashic Books in spring 2009.

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